We plunge into tamatar chaat weather in Varanasi. The days are warm and sticky, like the city’s favourite snack: a soupy bowl of tomatoes and potatoes simmered in ghee, then finished with a flourish of butter and crisp namkeen. I recoil at my first steamy spoonful, wedged between samosa-wielding strangers on a hard, sweaty bench at Kashi Chaat Bandar. The friendly waiters suggest dahi bhalla instead, with lashings of cool yoghurt, and find me a table angled towards their sputtering air-conditioner so I can wallow in its asthmatic puffs of cool air.I have been drawn to Varanasi by promises of “fortified heritage radish bricks”. BrijRama Palace, set at Darbhanga Ghat, with mesmerising views of the Ganga has just launched a 10-course vegetarian tasting menu. Served at its fine dining restaurant Aangan, this is the 214-year-old fort-turned-palace-turned-hotel’s signal that it can balance contemporary luxury with the responsibilities that come with being a historic property on an iconic ghat in one of the oldest living cities in the world.The menu, I am promised, also includes a ‘celestial Guardian amuse-bouche’ and ‘Rasmalai tres leches cake’. Tamatar chaat and 45°C weather notwithstanding, I hop on a plane.